Jonathan Horton retools to have a shot at Rio Olympics

INDIANAPOLIS — Six months ago, Jonathan Horton was ready to retire.

One of the most accomplished U.S. gymnasts in the past decade, Horton had finished 18th at the Winter Cup, an annual ranking meet for the American men. At 29, he had felt as if he couldn’t beat time anymore.

“I felt like a backup gymnast,” he said this week as he prepares for the U.S. Championships.

That Horton didn’t retire is a testament to the friends who offered perspective and a training approach that has gotten smarter. Though he’s unlikely to contend for the title here, the changes he and coach Tom Meadows have made since that February event have him feeling far better than he was after one of worst finishes in his career.

After the Winter Cup, he heard from former U.S. gymnasts Raj Bhavsar, John Roethlisberger and Blaine Wilson. Their message was clear: Don’t retire.

“Everybody said, ‘Dude, don’t be done. Do not be done because you will regret it,’” Horton said. “I wanted to finish and be like, ‘You know what, I’m happy. I’ve had a great career. But this is pathetic and I don’t want to continue.’ And they all convinced me to keep going.”

That required a shift in mind-set for Horton.

No longer was he the 22-year-old who had led the USA to a surprise bronze medal, and his own silver on high bar, after Paul and Morgan Hamm withdrew in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

That third-place finish in the World Championships in 2010 — one that made Horton and Paul Hamm the only two U.S. men to win all-around medals in that competition in the last 30 years — wasn’t going to help him now.

“We just retooled,” said Meadows, who has coached Horton for all but his college career at Oklahoma.

That meant decreasing difficulty and perfecting execution. Horton says he has decreased his start value on each event and focused on eliminating the mistakes that cost him precious decimal points in deductions. On rings, for example, his start value has dropped from 16.7 to 16.3. While he averaged around 15.2 before, he scored a 15.8 in qualifiers last month.

“It has everything to do with my body physically can’t do that other stuff anymore,” he said. “But, given the fact that I’m so much more comfortable with my routines, I can really perform and execute vs. just kind of winging it and hoping to get through it and having crazy mistakes here and there in the middle of the routine.”

Where that takes him will bear out in the coming months. Teammates Sam Mikulak, Danell Leyva, Donnell Whittenburg and many others are more likely favorites to make the team for World Championships in October.

That’s not necessarily the goal for Horton, who says the gymnastics he’s doing now is the “best stuff I’ve ever done.” His focus remains on making the team for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics next summer, which would make him the rare three-time Olympian in a sport in which one shot is usually all you get.

Even if he doesn’t, however, he won’t regret passing on retirement.

“This has been a very rewarding process for me because I feel really good,” Horton said.

Nancy Armour contributed to this report